Tag Archives: Scottish music

Various artists’ The King Has Landed: Songs of the Jacobite Risings

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. If you could boil down all traditional Celtic music and reduce it to one common ingredient, you’d end up with “oral tradition.” Clans and, before them, tribes, used songs to pass history down through the … Continue reading

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Coila’s Full On, Drinkers Drouth (with Davy Steele)’s A Tribute, and Margaret Stewart and Allan MacDonald’s Colla Mo Rùn

Judith Gennett wrote this’n. “The object of my affection is the white shanked heifer / She doesn’t need a fetter around her shanks…” Some people come home, pour a martini, and throw on some jazz. Others, however, put on Scottish … Continue reading

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Aly Bain’s First Album, Lonely Bird, and Aly Bain & The BT Scottish Ensemble’s Follow the Moonstone

Alistair Brown wrote this review. I have a vivid memory of Aly Bain at a folk festival in the 1970s. He was taking part in one of these compare and contrast workshops so common in Canadian festivals. On stage with … Continue reading

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Smithfield Fair’s Cairdeas (Kinship)

The very first thing I did upon receipt of Smithfield Fair‘s newest effort — aside from popping the disc in my player, of course — was pull out the liner notes and check how many tracks were original compositions. On … Continue reading

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Smithfield Fair’s Highland Call

Completely unfamiliar with Smithfield Fair, I had no idea what to expect on Highland Call, apart from the vague notion that this was some type of contemporary Scottish band whose music may or may not have absorbed some of the … Continue reading

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Smithfield Fair’s Winds of Time

Most traditional bands — be they Celtic, Scottish or any variation on the acoustic folk motif — tend to rely heavily on the tried and true for their musical repertoire. How many times has “Black is the Color” or “Scotland … Continue reading

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Smithfield Fair’s Burns Night Out!

Mike Stiles wrote this review. Hailing from Louisiana here in the States, Smithfield Fair is an innovative trad-based Scottish trio with an energetic pub style. For this CD they put on their best Broad Scots in homage to the immortal … Continue reading

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The Scottish Power Pipe Band’s Cathcart, and Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band’s The Calling

There exist in the piping world today two kinds of Scottish pipe bands: those that play by the rules of repertoire and those that have an adventurous streak. This review highlights one very ambitious pipe band open to contemporary sound … Continue reading

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Steve McDonald’s Sons of Somerled

Somerled was a 12th century Scottish lord and war leader who helped defend the land from Viking invaders. His grandson founded the largest and most powerful of the Scottish clans, Clan Donald. When New Age musician Steve McDonald of New … Continue reading

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Jock Tamson’s Bairns’ Rare

With almost 20 years between their second and third albums, a mere four years waiting for their fourth is less than we had reason to fear. And yes, the lineup is the same as last time: Derek Hoy, John Croall, … Continue reading

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